


Men Have Wasted Away Before It

by ElizaHiggs



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Canon Compliant, F/M, Forgiveness, Mirror of Erised, POV Severus Snape, Short One Shot, Wizard Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-24 01:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6136318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizaHiggs/pseuds/ElizaHiggs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knows better than to go looking for the Mirror of Erised</p>
            </blockquote>





	Men Have Wasted Away Before It

**Author's Note:**

> Written when I realized Snape and Harry likely saw very similar things in the Mirror of Erised
> 
> I do not own any of these characters

He knows better than to go looking for the Mirror of Erised.

But there he is anyway, before the start of term, before her son arrives at Hogwarts, and he has no idea how long he spends kneeling in front of it - perhaps hours: her hand resting on his shoulder, smiling gently, granting the forgiveness he has craved so desperately for ten years, but which he knows he has not yet earned.

Dumbledore finds him there, cold and shaking, and gently pries him away. And he dares not look up into the old wizard's eyes, which he is sure are watching him with unbearable understanding, but he nevertheless feels he must say something, and so he explains himself in a halting whisper: "I have...no photograph of her."

He has the sense that this has vaguely startled Dumbledore, and the man's grip on his arm tightens with renewed sympathy.

"Come away, Severus," Dumbledore says again, and looks down at this man who has nothing, not even a memento of his old friend, nothing but the hope of forgiveness in the afterlife, and he feels the need to give him something, to assuage his conscience and assure him that his conversion is not somehow meaningless.

"She will know," he tells the young man, "I promise you - she will see, and she will know."


End file.
